Is there a way to use Microsoft Word’s “Master Document” feature with OneDrive? No, but only because Microsoft won’t fix it.
Master Documents in Word won’t work on OneDrive. You might think that after all of Microsoft’s efforts to get customers using their cloud storage, the company would make sure one of their core products was fully compatible. Think again.
See Why have my files moved to OneDrive? to understand what Windows does when it offers a “Backup” or moving key folders to OneDrive.
What is Master Documents?
Master Documents is a way, in theory, to bring many Word documents (called sub-documents) into one large document. You can work on the sub-documents separately or bring them together as a single large doc. It’s theoretically great for managing large jobs, for example a novel with each chapter as a sub-document.
The feature handles the master and sub-documents moving location well but only if they are local folders on the computer. Assuming all the files are in the one folder (a very wise move), you can move all the files to another folder. Open the Master Document and you can see the sub-document links like this.
Move those document to another folder on the computer and Word will change the links for you.
But watch what happens if we move those same documents to OneDrive (strictly, moved to the \OneDrive\ folders on the local computer). Word completely loses track.
The sub-document links are now web links to OneDrive locations (see the document body) but another part of Word errors because it says the files should be at a local folder location (e.g. \Users\<user name>\OneDrive\Documents\). In fact the sub-document is in that folder, but the mismatch with the web link causes the error anyway.
It’s been that way for some years. Plenty of time for Microsoft to fix this.
Avoid Master Documents
Mind you, Master Documents is such a messed up feature that it’s better to avoid completely. Even in perfect situations with all docs saved in one local folder, Master Documents will F#%k up seemingly if you even sneeze the wrong way.
If you must use Word’s Master Documents feature, make sure to:
- only save to the local computer
- have plenty of backups (Windows File History is ideal)
- carry with you various good luck charms, such as
- rabbits foot
- four-leaf clover
- eye of newt
- toe of frog
And for heavens sake, keep all the documents well away from OneDrive or Sharepoint.
